Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,
Once upon a time, all of the major institutions in our society were running super smoothly, and most people could rely on the fact that they would always be there when they were needed. But now things are going haywire everywhere that you turn. We are in the midst of the worst supply chain crisis in our entire history, the crime and violence in our largest urban areas is starting to spiral out of control, millions upon millions of our fellow citizens are absolutely seething with hate, and this pandemic is causing officials to make extremely irrational decisions that would have been unthinkable during “normal times”.
Earlier today, I was horrified to hear that one of my readers had just been denied access to a local hospital. He was taking his wife in for a very important reason, but there were people at the entrance that were checking the vaccination status of everyone that attempted to enter. He and his wife had not been vaccinated, and so they were turned away.
That means that they will not be able to have access to any services at that hospital for the foreseeable future.
Did you ever imagine that a day would come when you might not even be allowed to go inside your local hospital?
In other cases, hospitals are not providing certain services any longer due to severe staffing shortages. In fact, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that some institutions may lose up to a third of their employees due to Biden’s mandate for health care workers.
That is madness, and I never imagined that we would see such a thing happen in America.
But here we are.
Moving forward, many Americans are going to have to start figuring out how to provide their own health care, because our health care system is being shaken like never before.
Meanwhile, we are seeing a “historic burst in entrepreneurship and self-employment” as millions upon millions of Americans seek to create jobs for themselves.
Thanks to Biden’s mandates, there are millions upon millions of Americans that may soon be ineligible to work for any company that employs 100 or more workers. For now, that particular mandate has been put on hold, but it could be reinstated at any time by the courts.
In any event, many Americans have decided that now is the time to leave the system and start working for themselves.
So far this year, a whopping 4.54 million new small businesses have applied for a federal tax identification number. That is up 56 percent from 2019…
Entrepreneurs applied for federal tax-identification numbers to register 4.54 million new businesses from January through October this year, up 56% from the same period of 2019, Census Bureau data show. That was the largest number on records that date back to 2004. Two-thirds were for businesses that aren’t expected to hire employees.
I have always encouraged entrepreneurship as a way for people to become more independent from the system.
The good news is that there are literally millions of different ways to work for yourself in this country today.
If you are considering taking such a leap, focus on what you are good at.
Personally, I would be an absolutely horrible auto mechanic, and if I tried to be a hair stylist it would be a complete and utter disaster.
But I can write, and so that is what I do.
Others can’t write, but they are incredibly talented in other areas.
The key is to find something that will add value to the lives of others.
The global energy crisis is another factor that is pushing people to become more independent of the system.
This year, Pennsylvania residents are being warned that their energy bills could increase by approximately 50 percent…
Energy costs in Pennsylvania are set to rise as much as 50% in some parts of the state beginning Dec. 1, according to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC).
“Most Pennsylvania regulated electric utilities are adjusting the price they charge for the generation portion of customers’ bills on December 1 for non-shopping customers, also known as the ‘Price to Compare’ (PTC),” the PUC explained in a press release. “The PTC averages 40% to 60% of the customer’s total utility bill. However, this percent varies by the utility and by the level of individual customer usage.
And as the global energy crisis escalates, we could see more painful energy shortages like we recently witnessed in China, India and Lebanon.
This has motivated a lot of Americans to take matters into their own hands, and at this point demand for wood burning stoves is off the charts…
At Central Arkansas Fireplaces in Conway, a suburb of Little Rock, the flood of orders for woodstoves has been so overwhelming that units purchased today won’t be delivered in time for this heating season. “You can’t get a stove until at least April,” says Lakin Frederick, an employee at the store.
Needless to say, demand for firewood has also soared, and this is pushing prices into unprecedented territory…
At Firewood by Jerry in New River, Arizona, a cord of seasoned firewood — roughly 700 pieces or so — goes for $200 today. That’s up 33% from a year ago. At Zia Firewood in Albuquerque, the price is up 11% since the summer to $250. And at Standing Rock Farms in Stone Ridge, a bucolic, little town in the Hudson Valley that’s become popular with the Manhattan set, the best hardwoods now fetch $475 a cord, up 19% from last year.
But those that prepared ahead of time don’t need to pay through the nose, because they already have all the firewood that they need.
For years, I have been pleading with people to make preparations in advance for the difficult times that were coming.
Now those difficult times have started to arrive, and things are beginning to get really crazy out there.
Even entire communities are trying to become more independent of the system. In California, the insanity coming from Sacramento just became too overwhelming, and so the entire city of Oroville decided to declare itself a constitutional republic…
Oroville declared itself a constitutional republic. A place where the local leaders pledge to fight mandates they say go too far.
“Any executive orders issued by the State of California or by the United States federal government that are overreaching or clearly violate our constitutionally protected rights will not be enforced by the City of Oroville against its citizens,” read the declaration passed this month by the City Council.
That is a pretty dramatic move, but the truth is that communities all over the nation are going to have to try to do what they can to insulate themselves from the authoritarian measures that are being instituted on the state and federal levels.
If you live in a city or a state where things are particularly bad, you may need to pick up and move to an entirely different part of the country.
I know that sounds extreme, but we live in extreme times.
If you want a normal life, you will want to find a place where people are still determined to live relatively normal lives.
Because as the system continues to collapse all around us, things are only going to get even crazier.
Our country is literally starting to come apart at the seams, and a lot more “change” is on the way.
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I personally love the idea of a alt care health system,one based on health and not pharm/hospital industry socks.
A for firewood,hopefully you are working on NEXT seasons firewood right now if you use it as a primary/backup source of heat ect.A lot of decent alts home made in the energy world these days,as for staying warm,start with a under layer of the Chili’s in colder times.
Yes,folks should have been prepping a long time by now,that said,till it all crashes you still can prep,you can do it and any ?’s ask wether here or other sites that tell the truth,folks will help you out,YOU can do this!
I lost a friend/family member due to vacc status would find those responible in the admin end and get justice,bet all these hospitals get some form of taxpayer monies,so,they want war eh…..,most didn’t but if declared on us then war it tis.
B is for burning tires, man they throw off a lot of oily smoke, leaves a bad residue ash that gets into everything, very hard to clean up and get sterile Enough of them makes a heat that will weaken concrete. So do not burn them if there are a bunch of oxygen bottles around.
Use coal.
A much better and
more compact form of wood.
And you should be able to find it cheaper and more available, on average, per BTU, for heat.
Good luck, YMMV.
Also now skyrocketing after seeing a death spiral in prices since circa 2012.
Try to find high BTU low ash coal. It will be really black and shiny.
Carbon monoxide poisoning is what that furl will get you
I and other old people are fortunate to have Y2K as a precursor and got an early start.
Thumbs up if you are scrambling to become independent or already there. Comments on what you have done are welcome.
I’ve been self-employed for most of my adult life. One main and very important factor is to put money aside for the dry times when you’re flush during good work times. I know too many who impulse buy and never put any saving away.
Know how to cook and preserve and scrounge. I used to buy the damaged produce and make preserves and what not until the health department said store have to toss said items. Have some sort of side gig too, make stuff to sell or barter, if you can, get some chickens. I don’t have any livestock anymore except for some cattle, chickens where I live bring in too many predators and it’s not worth it.
Make friends with people who garden and raise livestock and trade work or services in exchange for what they produce.
I want to try something like Marc did/does with collecting that refuse from the grocery and restaurant and using it as feed. I need to go back and find where he wrote about it. I see so many “organic” and “permaculture” outfits on the youtube feeding their animals corn/soy meal. That’s really missing the point.
I have done those things. I am worried if I am going to be able to hire someone to dig a well. I suppose I could manage if I had to, but I don’t like to take chances I don’t have to.
By prepping I don’t want to stock pile, I want to produce.
You stockpile AND produce. Farmers stockpiled all the hay, corn, etc. for the lean, cold times. As to well digging…do you have an aquafer or a great water table? Hire out the work if you have someone who knows what they’re doing. One sibling has a 300 ft. well, she’s a liberal so I doubt she’s even thought about how to pump water should the electricity go down.
The local food bank here will give all the expired produce to anyone who wants it rather than tossing it. Hogs will eat most anything for the most part, ditto chickens so you can scrounge feed for them.
I located a source for forage seed by the pound, (was cheaper than the seed catalogues) and will be planting some of that this spring. Got seed for daikons, turnips, cowpeas and the like. I can eat that good stuff and the cows can too if I make sure they get hay.
Good luck with your endeavors….
MM, you are a wealth of information today. That is a good idea for the forage seed. That plays into my soil and pasture management plans. I hadn’t thought about foodbanks, also a good idea.
In 2014 I had a stainless steel custom built two line well head designed and built (through internet photos) for one of my two wells. It is a shallow well at 257 feet.
It was a little over 2k then…not counting installation.
The standard electric line and a separate shorter hand pump line. The hand pump is detachable. Grid down I can run hoses to the house and hand pump in water.
Put in a second well with a new house in 2020 and bought this so if the grid is down I have a way to pull up water out of that well as well…it is a deeper well at 500 feet…have 500 feet of rope.
It will pull up just under 2 gallons…for $99. Can’t see not having one of these if you have a well. Could make a huge difference worst case.
https://www.lehmans.com/product/lehmans-own-galvanized-well-bucket/
I find Lemans a wide and deep source for farm/rural/self-sufficient products.
I just bought a fermenting crock with weights from them. Sadly, my sister has the well. I have two stock tanks and collect rain water. If it got real dry I’d be in trouble. No water under this place….
Mark, I made one of those as well. I believe you posted this suggestion once before.
Shallow at 257′,just not buying it as we had at best really shallow 50’/i.e. pumps one could see/easy hand ect.All jet pump I have seen about at best 50’/again/at point a basic hand works.
Wow. A nearby water tower reports to have a 50 foot well and it is near a river. I don’t expect 200 feet, let alone 500, thank goodness. Thanks for the replies and advice.
The fact that the item you posted is backordered speaks volumes.
Started a small engine repair shop last year…growing it more next year. Buying farm across the road plan to grow and raise as much of my food as possible. We are already well ahead of the curve up here. Inviting the collapse.
Old, tired and somewhat crippled so the hoeing, chopping and sweating days are over. God, beans, bullets,PM’S and hang on for the ride here. Best we can do.
Do what we can to survive. You are still better off than 90% of the population, so the outlook is good.
An interesting thing happened while we were bowling with the oldies (we joined a “retired” bowling league and they are mostly over 80.) To be honest, they are amazingly good bowlers, with a few WWII veterans who amaze me with their consistency.
However, most of the “younger” bowlers (early 80s) are quite agile for their age, no disrespect intended.
We picked up a load of insulation for the attic of the little house aka treehouse and one of the more observant bowlers asked me what all the insulation in our truck was about. I explained that the treehouse on our property needed insulation in order to be “liveable.” We lived in it and our Mennonite log home builders lived in it but nobody in their “right” mind would live in it again without insulation. The electricity bill during winter was enormous. It was worth it then, but not now.
I sort of explained that to Mike, the guy who’d noticed the load in our truck. Before the three game set was over two people had asked about buying the little house and Mike said he would like to come see it for his son.
It isn’t even for sale.
Maybe he was just making conversation, or being nosey.
It’s possible, but the other two folks were interested. It really is a quaint little place… or will be with insulation.
Your real heat loss is the floor. Anything on stilts or pier and beam will need something to break the wind and cold, that’s why doublewides and singlewides have skirting. I prefer a slab foundation after my prior domicile, which was a hundred-year-old, uninsulated farmhouse. All manner of critters made themselves comfortable under said house.
Cute house BTW. How much?😉
We are going to have the bottom foamed after Nick completes the subfloor repair.
We are about 5K into materials, with Nick doing almost all the labor, me nagging.
Fortunately, it did have a brand new roof on it, so even though the inside wasn’t complete, it was dried in.
(We had several carpets on the floor and seven space heaters, including one kerosene heater. That floor was wicked in winter!)
I truly dislike/hate wall-to-wall carpeting, especially trying to keep it clean. My little farmhouse changed my mind on that. Wood floors and nothing but the dirt underneath had me buying mucho throw rugs. When a norther blew thru I could feel the cold seep. I got cheap blankets for the windows and doors and that helped. Looked like a cave inside but it was warmer.
The washroom was a former porch that had been closed in. One winter it got so bad in there all the pipes burst. The next winter I learned my lesson and basically wrapped the place in whatever fabric I could lay my hands on. Thrift stores provided cheap sleeping bags. Place looked like a homeless encampment sans the tents but I had nary a busted pipe. Don’t take me long to look at a horseshoe.
I was a farrier for 25 years, wonder how many here know the meaning of your last sentence.lol
My brother and several friends are/were farriers. Thanks for the memory!
Most native Texans know what it means…especially the rural ones.
That’s a nice hospital they have got there…..be a real shame if anything happens to it. Or to the Gruppenfuhurer manning the checkpoint at the door.
That would break my heart.
Jimmy Carter’s last year in office (79) was the catalyst to my first purchase of Freeze Dried food in buckets. I had a wife and a two year old baby…plus I was on the razor’s edge of being laid off – but survived, but I remember being past worried…and into planning to maybe (worse case) lose our first 900 sq. ft. starter home.
Scary times then…but shoot, shot, shit…NOTHING compared to now. Also bought my first privately owned guns in 79.
– A .380 (AMT Back Up) in a wallet back pocket holster (muggers, was living in Jersey) you could pull it out like a wallet and shoot in one motion. Practiced that move hard. Never made a Death Wish movie…but I might have been the wrong guy to mug???
– A .45 (Colt Commander Lightweight)
– A 12 Gauge (Mossberg)
-An AR-7 over and under single shot .22 & 4/10.
Still have them all.
Y2K worried me…and I added to my basic prep…just in case…but towards the end I felt it would pass. Still glad for the prep, still have some.
2008/9 raised my Prep status to a super high Defcon 5 level…still have the pallet of 25 year freeze dried food I bought then (thank God-good until 2033 – past my due date) and Sliver PMs when they drove it down to $8.00…bought that dip!
But, when the Petulant One was re-selected after Mittens took the obvious third round DIVE…completely throwing the 3rd debate…I knew we were running out of time and I went in ‘Full Retard 100 round belt burst mode’ (screw the barrel…if it burns out you always have a spare) I became a Farmer/Compound Prepper…and never stopped getting ready for the end of the beginning.
With many in both families I also went from paranoid right wing nut…to a prophetic rural self-sufficient independent farmer…not so right wing nut…now….as the shipping containers stack up.
At least to those who have their heads finally pulled out of their asses?
Better late than never.
Just an aisde to your comment. I too have been stockpiling the buckets of freeze dried food that have a shelf life of 25 years. I have also eaten MREs from the Vietnam era that were over 40 years old (at the time) and still edible. I suppose I wouldn’t rely on it too heavily, but expiration dates are vastly underestimated on almost all food products in this country in order to avoid litigation.
You can run but you can’t hide.
Remember YOU are the carbon they want to reduce…
Reduction has always been a two way reality, fight…war…result.
Hubris and overreach and repeating both also has a way of being reduced…just saying.
Maybe repealing and reducing the .0001% to .0000000000000000000001% who are all that are left for now…and hiding in their underground hidey holes might work?
My suggestion is to dispense with Ursala! I see no use for her! FIFY
Don’t forget to prep for home businesses too. I try to stock up on what I may need to continue to operate and expand my backyard business. A lot of my materials are free, others can be sourced from the land, but there are those things that require money.
I’ve been tearing down an old house for years now and back when I didn’t know what materials cost, I scrapped a lot of the roof metal and repurposed the deck wood into a greenhouse. Now I’m saving as much of the old dryrotted wood as I can or recycling it into productive items like garden boxes. I’m also saving as many screws and nails from it as I can, electrical wiring, conduit boxes, fixtures, plywood that isn’t rotted, etc. Originally I was going to just burn it but then money got tight. Sounds like a waste of time but when you are self-employed with limited earnings, it will quickly become worth the time and effort to salvage it.
All my heating needs are wood and I got plenty of that to burn, propane / electric are backups. Prep common sense items you use on a daily basis and items you know other people use often enough.
Carbon footprinting is about to go viral and many folks got a taste of what’s to come last winter when the ice storms in Texas ballooned energy prices for millions in the colder climes. I have a high-efficiency wood burner that heats the entire house but also recently installed a high-efficiency hybrid gas/electric furnace to have more options.
Also have a heated shop in town that had a thermostat located on an outside wall. It was that way when I took possession years ago and I never moved it because gas prices have been so cheap. Not anymore. City code won’t allow wood-burners and insurance won’t cover so I just moved the thermostat to an inside wall and replaced all of the overhead fluorescent fixtures with LEDs.
Busy busy. More time than fiat cash and the green paper is fading fast.
Arc,I have dozens of containers of nuts/bolts/ screws/washers ect. saved up,missing something just dump the most likely can to have it in trash can lid,dig and there you go,the one item I was missing!I can relate to your saving of items as long as they have a real value in some new way,refuse to become a hoarder!
“I’m also saving as many screws and nails from it as I can, electrical wiring, conduit boxes, fixtures, plywood that isn’t rotted”. DAD…Is that you?
So if you go to the hospital and they won’t let you in because you’re not vaxxinated, and refuse to talk care of you, then why should we continue to pay our medical insurance premiums? What good is our insurance then? What are we paying for? I don’t know what it’s like for anyone else my medical insurance isn’t cheap. I’m not vaxxed and never will be so what should I do about my insurance?
Hire a good lawyer…threaten a lawsuit and use the emergency room. By law the ER must, at minimum, stabilize you before transferring you to a hospital. As to overpriced health insurance? I do believe we are truly screwed. The communists have succeeded in destroying healthcare in the USSA and much of the Western world.
Same with taxes.
Remember, it’s not tax evasion, it’s theft avoidance.
Well, I’ll just throw this out there.
Don’t move to rural Texas! This place is crazy! Filled with rednecks and skeeters so big, they have ticks on ’em.
Giant, smoke-spewing diesel trucks, cow fart infested ranches and illegal immigrants with their music and cabrito tacos. You city folk just wouldn’t make it here. Best to stay in New York and California and just wait it out.
This is for your own good.
These people even carry guns you cain’t even see! You gotta be polite when you don’t know who has a weapon of war just willy-nilly strapped in a boot.
And the music! Why, these dang-ol’ country boys sing about God and country, beer and Levi’s-wearing women.
Unless you are in a big city like the hell holes of Austin or Dallas, you won’t even get a good earful of big bass sound with black folk braggin about beating woman and doing drugs out the open door of an Escalade at a gas station.
I’m warnin ya, stay where you are comfortable wearing your mask and doing what your government(that you voted for) tells you to.
I’ll try to hold the fort down here.
Dang! Just stepped in a cow patty
~A9racer
LOL!
Ditto everything A9 said ^^^^^^^
A9, hang onto that cow patty and let it dry. They burn real well. You may need it for heat this winter. LOL
Well, no need hanging on to ’em. There’s plenty.
And we have tons of oak, mesquite and even pecan for my brisket. We don’t use the heat as fireplace is more comfy and tends to draw the family together where we actually have…conversation! Oh the horror!
We never lost power or water during the freeze in February, but well prepared if we did.
Those Yankees have it tougher, especially those in the cities.
Plus, I get plenty of 2nd Amendment practice with all the danged hogs.
Dry-fine. Wet- not so good.
A9racer…you left out even Goat Ropers need love too .
You know, it’s interesting. My wife and I are repulsed by what we’re seeing and hearing about the health care system in this country, especially the hospitals. We’re so repulsed by what we’re reading and hearing that we’ve decided to disengage from the medical/pharma industrial complex. We’ve decided that what happens, happens, and that whatever that is will happen at home. We’ll do the best we can to maintain good health, and treat our own illnesses and injuries at home as best we can. And we’ve liberated ourselves from the albatross of health insurance. If our strategy is to handle things at home, why do we need health insurance? It’s an enormous weight off our shoulders, and has led to my decision to retire early next year, as health insurance simply won’t be a necessity any longer.
It’s a huge decision, but we’ve been making decisions, some of them radical, for the past two years, so it wasn’t hard. And the everyday stories coming out of hospitals about purebloods being refused organ transplants, other surgeries and even basic care are horrendous. We also read and hear about hospitals simply refusing to provide lifesaving drugs for treatment of Covid-19, choosing instead to use a government-mandated cocktail of poison. No, thanks. A succession of hack doctors in the past 10 years had weakened our faith in our health care system, but Covid-19 has wiped out what little faith we still had.
Will we ever return to a hospital? Well, I might be in a car wreck, so perhaps. But otherwise? No. And Fauci? He’ll have much to answer for, and not only in this plane of existence.
If you got somebody near you who’s a Vet, they can make a decent ‘country doc’ if the need arises.
Just Sayin’
I used to say if you don’t kill your enemies they will kill you. I was right the first time I said it and I am still right.
Complete independence is impossible for 95 % of the population, maybe even 98%. We rely on the systems we have developed and cannot alter our lifestyle to produce everything needed to sustain life. Revelation is pounding on the door whether or not you believe the Bible. We can see the disintegration as it is occurring in real time.
Complete independence sounds great but most of us are incapable of it. Old and rickety describe my wife and I. We love Jesus and will trust in HIM for our future.
What the bible calls “the beginning of sorrows”.
Bingo. Most people don’t REALLY evaluate their independence. To do that you should compare what you rely on to what they had in say 1860…..cuz if it didn’t work then, it won’t work now if/when the power goes out…..or it won’t work for long. There’s a long dependency line for almost everything we have today.
Just Sayin’
When I see a California tagged car rolling down a Houston street, I feel the urge to shoot at it.
I have a “Don’t California my Texas” sticker on my truck.
I think that sounds legal!
What kind of “Normal Time ” do I want ? I want to be able to go to my farm and build a dwelling without a permit….no permission from the local gooberment to do what my great grandfather did in 1910 .
The very first thing a person must do when they reach their SHTF location ( after taking security into play) is start growing food. Once the first can of food is opened,the first bag of rice and beans is opened you are on your way to starvation without planning. Make damn sure you have back ups to the seed bank you hold…incase folks take your seeds .
As an experiment a few years ago I placed seeds at multiple locations in the woods to see how they’d do in the wild without any help. I was amazed at the tomatoes, taters and other things that grew .
If I did that I wouldn’t have squat to eat. The critters and bugs would wipe me out in no time.
You need to read up on getting rid of the bugs and the critters. Neem Oil works as does some of Jerry Baker’s tonics . Other than issues with horn worms our crops did well .